GoKawiilHow Rolls-Royce and rivals grow single-crystal turbine blades for jet engines
Jet engine turbine blades are not machined but grown from molten alloy into single crystals, allowing them to endure temperatures above 1,500C inside aircraft engines. Rolls-Royce manufacturing engineer Ben Fifoot describes the slow, controlled cooling process as one of the most complex manufacturing techniques in existence. Only a handful of companies worldwide, including Rolls-Royce, GE and Safran, have mastered the full process, which has been perfected in just five countries.